An accreditation scheme has produced a free-to-use tool aimed at landlords seeking to make their residential properties more energy efficient and legally compliant.
Find An Assessor is used by entering a location, type of home or building, and skillset being required. they are looking for to check their property’s energy performance and make sure their domestic private rented property portfolio complies with the law.
The tool can search for domestic energy assessors at levels 3, 4 and 5, who assess properties and determine the EPC rating. It also signposts to professionals who can assess heat loss and insulation levels, as well as legionella and overheating risk assessors.
Landlords ican also use the tool to look for professionals to check their property complies with Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards regulations requiring EPC band E or higher, in order to let their building legally. They can find a DEA to renew an expired EPC or reassess their property after renovations, as well as offer advice on how to improve its efficiency.
Stuart Fairlie, Elmhurst Energy managing director, says: “Landlords have never had to be so in tune with the energy performance of their property because this is directly affecting their ability to attract and keep tenants who are deeply concerned about what the cost of energy bills will be for their rented home.
“For an untrained eye, it can be difficult to know what measures to take to improve energy efficiency – and taking a scattergun approach can mean pouring money down the drain. When considering alterations, it’s best to get the advice of a qualified expert who can determine what changes will work best together to save tenants money on energy bills, while making sure you are compliant in your responsibilities as a landlord.”
The full list of professionals landlords can search for consists of: Domestic energy assessor; Overheating risk assessor; Retrofit coordinators; Retrofit assessors; Legionella risk assessor; Thermal imaging inspector; Inventory clerk; U-value calculation expert; and Overheating risk assessor.
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Thanks but no thanks…. When C comes in, I walk from the PRS 👍🏻💵
There’s only one Tool here and that’s he landlord.
I'm offfski.. My properties are stone built or where no cavity/a flat.. So unfair to only enforce EPC levels on this subset of properties.. Government buildings, owner occupied manors can leak heat, but that's fine just as long as they penalise PLLs and protect tenants.
If it’s an accredited scheme, it will as usual be a rip off. And every Tom, Dick, and Harry, will suddenly become professionals in the field. Then disappear when there are warranty issues.
Government Departments couldn’t organise a “drinking party at a brewery “,
So any Property that I think would fail to achieve “C” will be sold.
You can find out for sure as you will need the epc in order to market the house
The problem with Accreditation Schemes they keep expiring.
I was Accredited with 2 different Accreditation Organisations but I expected to keep renewing. How experienced do they want me to be I was a landlord before they were pupped .
The problem is the varying skill of the EPC assessors. Also the different agendas. Insulation company assessors will deliberately downgrade scores so the property qualifies for grant funding. Estate agent assessors will be overly optimistic.
I usually use an assessor who has been in it from the start (2007) and will run various scenarios through the software so I can make informed choices. Three years ago I bought a renovation project which the estate agents EPC assessor had made F25. He reassessed it as G14 and then ran various improvement scenario's which showed the maximum I could achieve as a leaseholder was a D. A low D if I put in a Dimplex Quantum storage heater or a high D if I put in gas central heating. Either way it would only be a D.
This week I got him in to advise on one that was D62 in 2008 and D64 in 2020. The second EPC was done by an insulation company and had clearly ignored stuff that had been upgraded since 2008. The 2020 EPC listed solid wall insulation and underfloor insulation as being the necessary improvements. Obviously that type of work would mean evicting the tenant. Anyway it was causing both me and the tenant stress so I got it reassessed by my regular unbiased assessor and it's actually EPC C69. So all that stress and worry purely because an insulation company had an agenda. It clearly shows EPCs aren't fit for purpose and we need to take great care with which assessors we use.
I agree Jo, I use a lady assessor who is also a landlord, she is fair and will do and advise the best she can, most landlords locally use her so she needs a bit of advanced warning, few yrs ago she assessed a flat over a corner shop for me, it came up as an F, she didn't put it through the system, she advised me to fit secondary glazing, she then came back and it got up to an E, she only charged me for one visit, assessors do vary a lot
I don't want to say too much but l am aware of an EPC assessing company that was recommended by the building inspector. the woman who did it was incompetent but gave a very good rating. The property is actually very effectively insulated and very economical to heat. However l don't know how you can get a decent EPC number without good window floor and wall insulation. !
Surely with floor and wall insulation you would be up to a B
You can usually get a C without floor or wall insulation. Especially on mid terraced properties. It's sometimes hard to prove if a solid wall has internal insulation without ruining the integrity of the insulation or vapour barrier (if it does exist). My 2008 EPC said the walls were insulted (presumably the previous owner provided evidence at the time). The 2020 EPC assumed no insulation. I couldn't prove it either way but the assessor this week was satisfied the walls were at least dry lined, which apparently allows an inbetween score.
Gas central heating and decent heating controls is usually the biggest jump in points. Quite how that's going to work if they ban gas boilers will be fascinating.
It's all a nonsense anyway when tenants don't understand how to heat a house efficiently.
When we arrived it was -2 outside, the bathroom and bedroom windows were wide open (she clearly understands the importance of ventilation). We couldn't find the heating programmer thermostat but due to the presence of a flashing light near the boiler it obviously existed. It turns out the tenant keeps it in her bedroom drawer??? She has the heating on for 2 hours in the morning, then leaves it off and has the windows wide open all day (even though she has trickle vents and extractor fans). Then has the central heating in for 2 hours when the children come home from school and then uses an electric convector heater because it costs too much to run the central heating. I don't think it's possible to have a more expensive, inefficient way of being cold.
Like, I hope, most people I’d like to save the planet, but also the cost of heating. I have over 140 HMOs, in which I pay the energy bills. I do not say this to boast, but to explain that I have tried every type of energy conservation measure and they do NOT work in HMOs. How do I know this? Because I read the gas and electric meters every week in each HMO. After I’ve fitted a new A rated boiler in place of a 30 year old boiler, double glazing, wall insulation, LED bulbs etc I find it makes no difference to the amount of energy used in the building. I know this does not stand up to rational analysis, but it is what happens in practice.
They have got the first three letters right in the energy conservation. It is no more than a ‘con’. I take on board the point that HMO’s may not operate as normal households on which the energy performance figures are supposed to be based. I would be very sceptical of energy experts or consultants especially if they are selling something or their services. When I challenge them, they turn round and say ‘the book says’. They never guarantee anything. Would you buy a car if the car dealer said the book says it should work? What I find disturbing is, when I challenge those so-called experts, they know perfectly well what they are doing often does not work!
If you only have a few properties, so it is difficult to quantify the savings, are you really saving money or only believe you are? Every time I ask someone who has used some conservation measures, they never have the evidence of the before and after meter readings. It is always, ‘of course it works’ or ‘it has got to work it says on the packet.’
On a positive note there are two measures I find always saves on energy. The first is to fit prepay electric meters to every HMO room, this can save up to half the electric used in the HMO. Why? Because the tenants behaviour changes overnight when they are directly paying for the electric. The tenants switch everything off when they go out and are careful what they use when they are in. I have just written a book on fitting prepay meters, called ‘ Everything you want and need to know about fitting prepay meters in your HMO’ and to do my bit to save the planet and help fellow landlords it is free of charge as a download. I cannot give you my address, as it prohibited, but look me up on the web and I will send you a copy free of charge.
The other way to save on costs is to put the heating on timed, it doesn’t save as much as you think but tends to upset tenants who often leave and lose you a lot more than the savings.
Jim Haliburton
The HMO daddy
I also have bills inclusive HMOs and have a very different experience than yours.
The houses with solar panels have noticeably lower energy bills.
When low energy lightbulbs came in that was a very noticeable saving.
Heat pump tumble dryers are well worth the small extra cost.
I'm in the process of changing heating programmers to the Inspire Home Automation ones specifically designed for landlords. I put them in 2 student houses in September and have been really impressed. I set the program from my home computer or phone and the tenants can boost it for an hour whenever they want but can't actually reprogram it. So far since September one household has boosted it twice. The houses always feel warm without being tropical. The app for these programmers is brilliant and shows exactly what the temperature is in the houses, how long and how often the boiler is running, if the tenants have needed to boost it, etc.
I even sent a screenshot of the heating pattern for one of those houses to the tenant who spends a fortune to be cold just to demonstrate how little time a boiler needs to run to maintain a comfortable temperature.
In other houses I have replaced the old electric blankets a few of the loft rooms needed before the roofs were better insulated with electric throws in the communal areas and have suggested if just one or two tenants are working from home it might be better if they use the throw instead of boosting the central heating. So far I have had 100% positive feedback on that idea. I tried electric throws in my own home last winter and cut our gas usage by thousands of kWhs and was much warmer so hopefully it will have some impact on the HMO bills.
I don’t have any HMO’s but can concur on the leaving the heating and electric appliances on when you go out…. Every time we go to Centre Parcs in winter we do exactly that.
Jo Westlake, your tenant who heats with electricy when gas is available, etc. will create mould, quite deliberately. I had tenants doing the same, they were advised by a rainbow centre. They demanded the deeds on the grounds that they had paid for the property with their rent They had been on benefits most of the time. obviously the council turn up and try to prove it was rising damp. I was able to prove different !
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